#11 Whole Numbers Play the Basics - Casino versus Japan (Carpark, 2002)


On several occasions during my first full year of teaching I would stumble into Ooh La Latte, the lovely but short lived coffeehouse/retro outfitter in Durham, needing a fix. I had been in enough to befriend the barista (Caesar) and find out that we indeed shared similar loves for slow, ambient, moody music by the fact that when he was working some loud shoegaze was permeating the room. One day I noticed Slowdive's Soulvaki sitting on the counter and asked him if he was gonna put it on. He stated that he already had but that he'd spin it again if I wished. A cup of joe, a couch, 5 min., and 'Allison' later I'm in the most satisfied state in weeks...A few months later Sugar and I are in again for the deep black goodness looking for old furniture. As I'm meandering around I'm hearing some fuzzy beats, walls of synth, and just brooding ambiance continually coming from the speakers. After a few minutes I had to go up and ask who we were hearing. I mean it was freakin dreamy. A girl was working the counter with Caesar and she was like yeah, my friend made me this cd weeks ago and I can't get it away from me. I went home and did a search for CvJ and found this site of sweetness playing. A few days later I was foaming over at Big Cougar's house and Sean b. was there as well. I don't recall them feeling the same and I didn't care.

Somewhere in the dusty depths of cd alley I found the vinyl and that was 2 falls ago. Sugar was pregnant and I was wondering what was about to happen with our lives. So, most nights for reflection and enjoyment I/we listened to this album. I would soon track down their/his Go Hawaii cd that preceded Whole #'s and found it definitely to be more of a 'sunny' album. But this album was for the evening when it would float out of the speakers up to a gathering point at the ceiling and them come dripping down in a haze of warmth and comfort.

I later did some review searches of the album and found the comparisons to all the 'big players' in the electronica scene. But this album seemed to get little if any notice. Thankfully, Erik Kowalski is not the genre defining master that Aphex Twin and Boards of Canada seem to be. His synth sounds, the waves, the filters, and the scratchy sometimes hip-hop beats seem so unassuming yet are so full of depth, warmth, and playfulness. There is enough time to get into that dream state but before you know it, its gone. It's a perfect album in that regard; not saying here, hear this, by cramming it in your ears over and over. But it's the held notes, the brooding arpeggios, the mournfulness, and the sequencing that makes it a wonder. And part 2 of 'if i could be a song' is contained here- 'Making Lake Park in the Sun'.